trbccoffeebreak

“But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” Colossians 3:8-11

I often joke with my friends that I’m working on Mount Saint Laundrious…you know…that mountain of laundry that never seems to end and somehow always winds up on my couch beckoning me to fold. Among what passes through my hands to clean are various articles of clothing my family has brought me to wash out stains. The stains look different depending on the day. Sometimes it’s the coffee spill on my husband’s shirt. Other times, it’s the mud on my little boy’s pants. And more times than I can count, it’s the spilled lunch on my white shirt. The stains vary, but the hands which do the work to get rid of them don’t. The ones who made the stains just have to bring them to me.

The same is true for us. Our stains vary. Some of us have issues with anger. Others, rage. Some struggle with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, and/or idolatry. And then there are things like malice, slander, filthy language, and even lying that crop up as blemishes in the lives of others. All of these are serious soul marks that separate us from our Holy Creator. Whatever the sin is, the need is the same: renewal from our Creator. We must bring whatever marks us and keeps us from being like Him to Him.

You can tell when your clothes are looking rough. You need someone to do the work of cleaning out what’s sunk into the fibers of the good thing that was created to fit you.

When we know more about who the Creator is, we know more about what we need to get rid of to look more like Him. But the thing is, we can’t get rid of life’s stains on our own. We need our Savior to remove sin’s stains.

God didn’t create you to be separated from Him. He created you for His pleasure as Revelation 4:11 says.

Friend, whatever the stain of sin is on your life— make a choice today to bring it to the Lord. He wants to wash it out and He wants you to abide in fellowship with Him. It’s why He created you. No matter who you are, where you’re from, or what you’ve done, Jesus can renew you from the inside out. And the more you know Him, the more renewal in Him you’ll experience as He trades the stains of sin for the fruit of His Spirit in your life.

“Lord, help us to bring the sin stains our lives to You. Trade them for the fruit of Your Spirit and renew our lives from the inside out.”

 For His Glory,

Emily P. Meyer (www.emilypmeyer.com )
TRBC Women’s Life